Musical instrument bow



Jan. 6,1953 M. NEBEL I 2,624,225

MUSICAL INSTRUMENT BOW Filed Dec. 2, 1950 b m H mH m u amn Patented Jan. 6, 1953 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE 2,624,225 MUSICAL INSTRUMENT BOW Martin Nebel, Philadelphia, Pa. Application December 2, 1950, Serial No. 198,783

6 Claims.

This invention relates to bows used in playing stringed musical instruments and more especially to bows having a plurality of genuine hair or hair like strands of plastic, or metallic material, or a combination of them, and mounted as a unit for replaceable attachment between the fixed head and the adjustable frog of the bow.

One object of my invention is to provide a new and improved bow for musical instruments of the indicated type.

Another object is to provide a strand unit for bows which may be quickly and easily mounted and readily replaced on a bow.

A further object is to simplify the construction and attachment of a strand unit so that no special skill is needed in its replacement on the bow.

Still another object is to so construct the strand unit that any type of suitable hair like material may be used in its make up.

A further object is to provide a novel method and means for mounting the ends of the strand in a manner which will insure perfect alignment of the individual hairs and thus prevent uneven tension in the strand.

With these and other objects in view, which will become more readily apparent from the detailed description of an illustrative and practical embodiment of the bow construction illustrated in the accompanying drawing, my invention comprises features of construction and arrangement of the various elements of my novel bow and its replaceable strand unit as will be more particularly pointed out in the claims.

In the drawings:

Figure 1 is a side elevational view of a bow for musical instruments embodying my invention.

Fig. 2 is a detailed side elevational view of the replaceable strand unit used in the bow illustrated in Figure 1.

Fig. 3 is an enlarged side elevational view of the rear end of the bow, the frog thereof being partly illustrated in section to illustrate the mounting of the strand unit in the frog.

Fig. 4 is an enlarged elevational View of the rear end of the bow.

Fig. 5 is an enlarged side elevational view of the front end of the bow with a portion thereof shown in section to illustrate the mounting of the strand unit in the head of the bow.

Fig. 6 is a bottom plan view of the frog illustrated in Fig. 3 with its cover portion removed therefrom.

Fig. '7 is a detail perspective view of the rear end of the replaceable strand unit.

Fig. 8 is a plan view of the top end of th replaceable strand unit.

It will be helpful to an understanding of my invention to first briefly consider some of the more important aspects and features thereof, so that these may be kept in mind during the subsequent reading of the description of the practical and illustrative embodiment shown in the accompanying drawing. Accordingly, it is noted that the replaceable strand unit and its mounting on the head and frog of the bow is extremely simple in construction so as to enable anyone to replace the strands of the bow and have the hairs of the strand in perfect alignment. In this way the need for professional skill to perform this operation is entirely eliminated. The hairs or hair like strands of the replaceable unit are banded and held together near their outer ends by a clamp which firmly holds them parallel to one another in a band like arrangement and their extreme outer ends are bent and held between a pair of anchoring plates which form part of the clamp and are adapted for insertion into the head of the bow for a simple, quick and easy attachment thereto.

The inner ends of the hairs or hair like strands of the replaceable strand unit are banded and held together in the same band 1ike arrangement by an elongated clamp which is adapted to be inserted and held in the frog of the bow so as to keep the strands in their parallel arrangement and in alignment with the bow proper.

The clamp which enters the frog has an extension to which is connected a threaded spindle for engagement into a threaded sleeve which is rotatably mounted in the end of the frog so that rotation of this sleeve in one direction will cause the strands to be adjustably connected to the frog. Rotation of the sleeve in the opposite direction will of course release the strands from the frog and in this way the simple operation of this threaded sleeve in conjunction with the insertion and withdrawal of the clamped and bent ends of the strands in the head of the bow, is all that is required in the replacement on the bow of one strand unit for another.

Referring now more particularly to the figures of the drawings in which like reference numerals indicate like parts, the musical instrument bow comprises the flexible rod or stick I which carries at the outer end the fixed head 2 and at the inner end the adjustable frog 3. Th latter is mounted to slide on the rod l and is provided with a threaded lug 4 which projects into a hollow portion of the rod for threaded engagement with the spindle 5. Rotation of this spindle by means of the knob 6 at the end of the rod I will thus operate to move the frog 3 in or out on the rod in order to loosen or tighten the strands of in a very short time and the bow, as will hereinafter appear. needed for this purpose.

The strands 1 used for the bow may be of that the restranding of th horse or other natural hair, palstic fibre, fine replaceable strand unit in metal wire or a combination of them which are 5 will result in perfectly ali arranged and aligned to form a soft bandlike which are uniformly tensi bundle of the proper thickness. The outer ends ment thereof. of this bundle are suitably clamped in place on While I have illustrated the flat back of the metal bracket 8 by means ferred embodiment of my novel bow and replaceof its foldable sides 8 The outer end of this 10 able strand unit therefor, it is to be understood bracket is bent so as to provide an angular hooked that various changes and modifications are posend 8 thereon. This hooked end has tapered sible and may be made therein without departsides to permit its ready insertion into the cavity ing from the scope of my invention as more par- 9 in the head 2 of the bow. The front wall of this ticularly pointed out by the hereto appended cavity is slightly inclined rearwardly, and in conclaims.

that no special skill is It is further apparent e bow by means of the the manner described gned parallel strands, oned after any adjustand described a prejunction with the wedge block 9 in the cavity, I claim:

provides an inclined anchoring slot in which the 1. A bow of the character described comprishooked end 8 of th bracket 8 will be firmly held me in. combination with a flexible rod having a in the head 2 by the tension of the strands 1. tip element at one end thereof and an adjustably The inner ends of the band like bundle of mounted frog at the other strands 1 are fastened to the elongated clamp internally threaded sleeve ro l0 which has a flat back and bendable sides Ill fixed location in said fro and I0 that are adapted to be folded and forced mounted for axial adjustm over the ends of the strands 1 to clamp them detachable bow string unit, in place against the fiat back of the clamp. The ing one end of said unit with said tip element, and sides IO when folded over the strands 1, remeans for separably connecting the other end duce the width of the bracket and with it the of said unit with the screw element. width of the strand bundle so that the bracket 2. A bow in accordance with claim 1, wherein can slide into the elongated cavity 1 l in the frog one end of said sleeve is provided with means 3 behind its cover plate I2. The angularly adapted to be engaged by aseparate sleeve turnfolded sides EB allow the bundle of strands 1 ing implement, to flare out to its full width and thus hold the 3. A bow in acco strands in conjunction with bracket 8 at the other said sleeve is provided with a transversely exend of the strands 'i in perfect alignment and tending slot at one end thereof. parallel to one another. The outwardly flaring 4. A bow in accordance with claim 1, whereportion of th clamp 10, prOVided by its anguin said screw element has a hook formation at larly folded sides 1G is partially surrounded by One end thereof. the ferrule I 3 which encircles th beginning of A MW in c nce W th Claim wh e n the cavity H in front of the cover plate [2. one end of said sleeve is arranged in transverse The back of the clamp It has an extension 40 alignment with the rear surface of the frog.

I 0 and in this extension is provided the rec- 6. A bow of the character described compristangular perforation m h h k d d of ing in combination with a flexible rod having a the threaded stud 14 engages into this perforatip element at one end thereof and an adjustably tion and is clamped or otherwise fastened to mounted frog at the other end thereof, of an the extension [t so as to be held in alignment 4 internally threaded sleeve rotatably mounted in with the bracket. In this way the threaded stud fixed location in said frog, a screw element I4 is made part of the clamp laso that insertion mounted for axial adjustment in said sleeve, a of'the clamp into the cavity I I will bring the detachable bow string unit, means for connectthreaded end of the stud into engagement with ing one end of said unit with said tip element, the end of the connectin'g'and adjusting sleeve 15.

end thereof, of an tatably mounted in g, a screw element ent in said sleeve, a means for connectrdance with claim 1, wherein and means for separably connecting the other This sleeve is rotatably mounted inthezfrog 3 at end of sai-d unit with the screw element in such the end of the cavity H in alignment therewith, manner as to e so that rotation in one direction will cause the justment of sai threaded stud to be threaded thereinto and .roaxial alignment with the movement of saids r w tation in the opposite direction will cause the element.

threaded stud to be threaded thereout of. A MARTIN NEBEL. flange [5 at the outer end of the sleeve is engaged on the frog so as to keep it from moving REFERENCES CITED endwise in the frog when rotated therein. The n threaded sleeve i4 is rotated by means of a suit- 3 1,;'igi gfii fi are of lebold m the able screw driver (not shown) which can be inserted into the slot [5 provided for this purpose. UNITED STATES PATENTS From the foregoing it will be apparent that Number Name Date the replaceable strand unit which is made up of 1 Rigs Sept. 5, 1922 the bundle of strands l, thebracket 8-at the outer 4,03 Grey Aug. 30, 1932 end and the clamp I t at the inner end, can b 2,2 8,998 Nebel l d Oct. 14, 1941 readily attached to and detached from the bow 0 Cypher May 8, 1951 

